PI's Weekly Media Digest: Deportation fears curb reporting of domestic violence, SF docs connect dots between police violence and reproductive justice
After the arrest and deportation of a woman at a courthouse where she was pursuing a domestic violence case against her abuser, NPR reports that other women have since dropped their cases in which they were victims of violent assault, fearing arrest and deportation if they showed up. The LA Times finds that “reports of sexual assault and domestic violence made by the city’s Latino residents have plummeted this year amid concerns that immigrants in the country illegally could risk deportation by interacting with police or testifying in court.”
The Indian Country Media Network reports on violence, murder and disappearance of American Indian and Alaska Native women: “There is no comprehensive data collection system regarding the number of missing and murdered Native American women and girls in the United States. Some reservations, however, report that women are murdered at more than ten times the national average, and a congressional study found that between 1979 and 1992 homicide was the third leading cause of death among Native American women ages 15-to-34.” Native women are also twice as other women to experience rape or sexual assault and two and a half times more likely to be the victims of violent crimes.
Children and young teens with autism are 40 times more likely to die from injury than their peers without autism, with drowning the most common fatal injury, according to a study, published in the American Journal of Public Health this week. People with autism are three times more likely than the general population to die because of injuries, and the average age of death is 36 years, half that of the general population, the study found (CNN).
According to Rewire, the Trump administration’s “skinny budget” request doesn’t “explicitly discuss the Violence Against Women Act, but makes clear that Department of Justice funding will be reallocated within the agency to focus more on efforts like border protection, immigration detention, and mitigating risks for so-called violence and crime in sanctuary jurisdictions (actually some of the safest cities nationwide)... The impact of potential VAWA cuts may also be compounded by similar budget reductions at government agencies that serve low-income people and women of color who experience domestic or intimate partner violence. Income and race are key factors in how likely a person will experience abuse from a loved one. While domestic violence happens to people of all backgrounds, the poorer the household, the higher the rate of domestic violence. Women in the lowest income bracket experience more than six times the rate of nonfatal intimate partner violence as compared to women in the highest income bracket. Black women face higher rates of domestic violence than white women, and Native American women are victimized at a rate that exceeds those experienced by women of other races. While domestic and intimate partner violence disproportionately affect low-income women and women of color, high rates of poverty, lack of education, limited job opportunities, language barriers, and fear of deportation can decrease the ability of a woman of color to find support services. This makes comprehensive, multipronged interventions to address violence against women critically important.”
A Reuters report finds that children in Fresno, California, face lead levels three times those of children in Flint. “In one central Fresno zip code, 13.6 percent of blood tests on children under six years old came back high for lead. That compares to 5 percent across the city of Flint during its recent water contamination crisis. In all, Reuters found at least 29 Golden State neighborhoods where children had elevated lead tests at rates at least as high as in Flint… The city of Fresno battles high poverty rates and problems with substandard housing, both risk factors for lead exposure. Some locals are also concerned with drinking water, after unsafe levels of lead were detected in at least 120 Fresno homes last year.”
Three San Francisco-area physicians, Ashish Premkumar, Onouwem Nseyo, and Andrea Jackson, released a commentary connecting police violence and reproductive justice in the journal Obstetrics and Gynecology. Rewire summarizes the commentary: “Their writing follows heightened awareness of law-enforcement brutality among health-care providers and public health workers. Researchers are slowly starting to address the knowledge gaps about stress, police contact, and reproductive health, with work such as the first known study about how anticipating negative police-youth encounters can affect pregnant Black women.” In an interview with Rewire, Dr. Nseyo said, “Police violence and interaction could be seen as particularly extreme forms of maternal stress. If one lives in a community that is frequently policed, the accumulative effects of these interactions can have health consequences more insidious than those caused by actual physical violence.”
The Washington Post covers updated research from Anne Case and Angus Deaton on rising mortality among middle-aged whites, amidst what Case described as a “sea of despair”: “Sickness and early death in the white working class could be rooted in poor job prospects for less-educated young people as they first enter the labor market, a situation that compounds over time through family dysfunction, social isolation, addiction, obesity and other pathologies, according to a study published Thursday by two prominent economists…. The two Princeton professors say the trend affects whites of both sexes and is happening nearly everywhere in the country. Education level is significant: People with a college degree report better health and happiness than those with only some college, who in turn are doing much better than those who never went… Offering what they call a tentative but “plausible” explanation, they write that less-educated white Americans who struggle in the job market in early adulthood are likely to experience a “cumulative disadvantage” over time, with health and personal problems that often lead to drug overdoses, alcohol-related liver disease and suicide.”
Looking to shift dominant media images, Myles Loftin, a young black photographer, created “Hooded,” a video and series of playful photos of young black men in bright-colored hoodies. “The video and photographs show black boys who are happy, emotional, and positive rather than the traditional stereotype which paints black males in hoodies as being hardened, intimidating criminals," the artist told VICE.
Mental health advocacy organizations are campaigning against the American Health Care Act currently under consideration in Congress, underscoring that it would cut coverage critical to promoting mental health and addressing opioid misuse, NBC reports. Of particular concern are plans to restructure Medicaid, which the National Council for Behavioral Health said is the largest payer of mental health and addiction treatment services in the country.
Rates of suicide in the U.S. have been increasing since 2000, and the gap between rates in urban and rural areas has widened, according to a study recently published by the CDC. The study’s authors suggest that higher rates in “non-urban” areas may be linked to a variety of factors, including a lack of access to treatment, isolation, and the opioid epidemic. “Just as suicide is not caused by a single factor, research suggests that suicide prevention cannot be achieved with a single strategy,” the authors wrote. “Suicide prevention efforts might be most effective when multiple strategies operating across the range of contexts in which persons live and work are combined.” They said these strategies could include providing better economic and social support, and promoting more positive norms that encourage seeking help when needed. The study also found that suicide rates among males were roughly four times that of females—in the period from 2008-2015, the suicide rate for males was 23.3 for every 100,000 males 10 years or older. Among racial and ethnic groups, rates were highest among non-Hispanic whites and American Indian/Alaska Natives.
House leaders on Thursday postponed voting on the AHCA because it didn’t have the votes among conservative Republicans to pass. The White House said they expect a vote on Friday. “Conservative lawmakers have asked to eliminate much of the measure’s Title I, which not only mandates which benefits participating insurers must cover — such as mental health treatment, wellness visits, and maternity and newborn care — but also bars companies from setting insurance rates based on a person’s sex, medical condition, genetic condition or other factors,” the Washington Post reports. Meanwhile, Politico reports that the CBO released an updated cost estimate for the AHCA, saying it would reduce the deficit by $150 billion over 10 years, not $337 billion—while it would still leave 24 million without insurance. Speaking of figures, ProPublica fact-checked lawmakers’ letters about healthcare to constituents, and found them full of errors.
The California Air Resources Board voted unanimously to limit the amount of methane the oil and gas industry can leak and vent.
This LA Times article on the AHCA specifically focuses on how it would ruin the efforts of health systems to pursue innovative care models and address social determinants of health. Safety net hospitals in L.A., Boston, Charleston (WV) and Denver and are concerned the bill will strip their ability to address community issues that affect health like unsafe housing, poor nutrition and untreated mental illness, the article notes.
Forbes reports on a new survey that finds more doctors are accepting Medicaid patients in the fourth year of coverage under the Affordable Care Act. About 53% percent of physicians in 15 large U.S. metropolitan areas now accept Medicaid patients among five frequently used specialties, the poll found, up from 45.7% in 2014. The increase began as more states expanded Medicaid coverage under the Affordable Care Act in 2014.
TransCanada announced this morning that Trump had issued a presidential permit to move forward with the Keystone XL pipeline.